6-17-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
After another series of ineffective offensive output, the Pirates will have at least one day more of strong pitching against as they are facing the Tigers and starter Casey Mize, who enters today with a 6-2 record and a 2.95 ERA through 61 innings pitched.
The former first overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft is looking like he’s finally starting to click after years of injuries and ineffectiveness, manning the barricades for a surging Tigers team that has been rising in the standings like a castle on a cloud.
Although he has been less hot as of late after a scorching start to the season (2.12 ERA over 5 starts in April), the Bucs should not look down on him as Mize has allowed 2 earned runs or less in 8 of his 11 starts this season with 55 strikeouts in that span.
At the end of the day, Mize offers a mid-90s fastball (4-seam/sinker), a splitter and slider both in the high-80s with a low-80s slurve with sharp movement.
He’ll use the 4-seam, sinker and slurve against right-handed hitters with opponents batting .340 against his fastballs in these situations, typically working upstairs with the heat leaving hitters seeing stars as the ball whizzes by them. Lefties have surprisingly struggled more against Mize, batting just .188 against his 4-seam while whiffing on his splitter 40.6% of the time.
Mize has had some very real reverse splits this season as righties have an .811 OPS against him compared to just a .619 OPS for left handed hitters.
But he has also been almost unhittable at Comerica Park as the master of the house with a .222 opponent batting average and 1.54 ERA at home being considerably lower than his away marks of .274 BA and 3.82 ERA.
Where the Tigers play is not a power-hitter park and – maybe fortunately – the Pirates are not a power-hitting team. Look to drive some fastballs to the gaps or drop some hanging breaking balls into shallow outfield. Find ways to get a guy or two on base and bring him home.
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